Saturday 30 June 2012

Taipei trip – 30 Jun 12

We caught a midnight Jetstar flight to Taipei. The flight was full but I managed to catch some sleep during the 4hr plus flight. The plane landed at Taipei Tao Yuan airport at dawn. Tao Yuan airport terminal 1 is undergoing renovation which makes the terminal looks more vibrant and not tired. We took an escalator to the bus terminal which is below the arrival hall. Then we washed up and brush our teeth at the toilet before taking a Guo Guang bus to Taipei main station.
Arrival hall
Bus ticket counters & bus timing
Bus berth

The journey to Taipei main station took about an hour. We left our luggage at the hotel first before crossing over to Taipei main station for breakfast.
Taipei main station

We went to the visitor information centre which is located on the first floor of Taipei main station to get access id and password for free Wifi. The information centre was also available at the airport's arrival hall but was not yet open. Free Wifi is available at the subway stations and quite a number of places, it's like our Wireless SG in Singapore.
Visitor centre

Many shops were not open yet and we settled our breakfast at 7-11. I love the fresh milk as the taste is similar to Magnolia fresh milk.
Breakfast for the day

After our breakfast, we took subway to Shilin station. As my sis has collected free easycard from Taiwan Tourism Board in Singapore, we only need to topped up the value in the card.
Dog and cat are neighbour

As Coffee Alley is not yet open for business, we walked around the shops near the  subway station. There is shop selling Japanese tidbits and we bought some tidbits.

Coffee Alley only opens at 12pm but there was queue forming at 11am. My sister told me that the cafe will open half of the seats for reservation and normally it's fully booked. I wonder what's so special about this cafe? The cafe even set the maxmium time spend is 1.5hr to prevent patrons from staying too long and chit chat.
Coffee alley
Menu that resembles a newsletter

Although the food items are more suitable for tea break but it's quite full to eat as a full meal. We ordered a drink each, waffle, sandwich and crepe. This meal cost NT792 ~ S$35 which  is acceptable for a meal in a cafe.
 Lunch

After our heavy lunch, we took subway to Xi men ding for shopping.
Puppy in the pram
青蛙下蛋

I notice this board outside the subway washroom and it's quite useful! If I'm in urgent need and I saw all the cubicles are red lighted, then I would find another washroom elsewhere.
This is so useful

We shopped till 5pm then left for dinner. It's not that we are hungry but the dinner queue at Dazzling cafe is long. We reach around 5.30pm and have to wait for an hour before it's our turn. I really don't understand what is the buzz about these cafes.
Victorian style cafe

We ordered a drink each, truffle fries, Mentaiko spaghetti with cream sauce and honey toast. This meal is slightly more expensive than lunch.
Dinner

By the time we finished our dinner, I'm started to feel very sleepy due to lack of sleep. We went back to our hotel and rest for the day.
Succinct Room
Bathroom

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